Oxford Christmas Light Festival: 17 – 19 Noovember

The Oxford Christmas Light Festival, when Oxford turns on it’s Christmas is on this weekend!
Last year the festival delivered 53 events to over 100,000 people!
Hotspots of activity are in Broad Street’s Christmas market, Gloucester Green’s live dance stage, magical installations in the Castle Quarter and this year will include the new Westgate Oxford into the mix as the lantern parade weaves through new spaces as well as historic ones.

There are lots of fun events for everyone, as well as a festive market and food stalls. The festival will be ablaze with lanterns, street artists, outdoor exhibitions, seasonal markets, music and dance.

SLEEPING BEAUTY PANTOMIME – THE THEATRE, CHIPPING NORTON

Once Upon A Time there lived a Princess, her long-suffering Nanny, her doting Fairy Godmother, and grumpy old King Lenny.

On her 18th birthday, the Princess pricks her finger on a spinning wheel and falls deeply asleep. When she wakes up, exactly four hundred years have passed and things have got a whole lot groovier… But who just kissed her? What strange clothes everyone is wearing! And what’s that music?!

Heaps of jokes, oodles of fantastic original tunes and a good dash of British History combine to make this a Sleeping Beauty like no other. From the glorious pageantry of the Tudors to the flower-powered freedom of the sixties, Chipping Norton’s panto is the most spectacular, the most splendid and the most stupefyingly funny show of the year.

Daily from 18 November – 24 December. Take your Little Diggers along and enjoy a delicious, freshly-prepared breakfast or tea! The whole family meets Santa, children decorate a festive biscuit and then choose their very own present to take home! While you’re there why not visit Santa’s grotto too? To book tickets click here

Enjoy a truly special Christmas experience this year at Santa’s Grotto with some of his favourite reindeer! As well as meeting these gorgeous winter creatures and Santa himself, children will receive a Christmas gift, personally given by Santa.

The Grotto is open daily from 19 November – 24 December

From 2 – 24 December you can treat your children to a very special and scrummy breakfast or tea in the company of Santa himself! Expect a fun-filled mealtime including a special present, and perhaps even a story or activity with Santa.

SANTA’S GROTTO AT FROSTS GARDEN CENTRE: 18 & 19 NOVEMBER

Santa’s Grotto is back…and its bigger and better than ever before!

Join Frosts Garden Centre for a unique grotto experience like no other…Enter Santa’s magical wonderland, sing with his bashful elves and then make some reindeer food ready to sprinkle on Christmas Eve.

The Adventure continues into Santa’s living room where you will listen to an enchanted story read by Santa himself.

With lots of surprises along the way this is the ultimate Santa experience for the whole family to enjoy!

CHRISTMAS AT WADDESDON: 18 & 19 NOVEMBER

The theme for this year’s decorations, Enchanted Menagerie, celebrates the weird and wonderful animals that can be seen throughout Waddesdon’s collections, from an elephant parade inspired by the 18th-century musical automaton to a life-sized zebra and trees decked with colourful birds and mythical beasts!

From dusk, an extraordinary new light and sound show Waddesdon Imaginarium, will be projected onto the Manor’s ornate façade. Visitors will be dazzled by roaming porcelain animals, dancing musical clocks, fluttering clouds of butterflies and moths and
18th-century portraits creating a fantastical visual story of Waddesdon.

Wrap up warm, head outside and discover light art by American artist Lauren Booth. Electric Menagerie winds from the Aviary to the Stables, with neon goats, parrots and even a flea circus.

Baby Boogie Taster Sessions: 18 November

Toddlers and grown-ups grab some space on the dance-floor and let the music take you away. Take a break in the chill-out zone with free face painting. Kick off your shoes and turn up the volume for a disco delight with your toddlers.

BRICK WONDERS LEGO EXHIBITION AT BANBURY MUSEUM: 18 – 19 NOVEMBER

Calling lego builders and mini-brick architects big and small… A world of imagination and creativity is waiting for you! Discover the endless possibilities, as you journey through history and around the globe discovering brick wonders, carefully crafted using over a quarter of a million of these much-loved little bricks.

A treat for all ages, bring your curiosity, build your imagination and explore the world brick by brick. Marvel at the shapes and structures that can be snapped together to create the most iconic wonders of the world, including the Great Wall of China, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Great Pyramid of Giza and Niagara Falls.

This is the last weekend this exhibition will be running, we visited this exhibition over half term, read our review here

MINI MORNINGS AT VUE CINEMA IN OXFORD: 18 & 19 NOVEMBER

Little Ankle Biters are always on the look out for ways to entertain the kids without spending a fortune, and going to the cinema for just £2.49 per person is one way of doing it, especially on a rainy day.

Vue Cinema in Oxford run Mini Mornings every weekend on a Saturday and Sunday morning from 10am, plus every day during the school holidays.

This is what they’ve got coming up this weekend

THE JUNGLE BUNCH

In their first big screen adventure, the Jungle Bunch’s tiger striped Kung Fu penguin leader Maurice and his comrades – a goldfish, tarsier and gorilla – fight to protect the jungle from a gang of silly baboons lead by Igor the evil Koala.